On any given evening at The Dead Rabbit, one of New York City's speakeasy-style cocktail bars, it's hard to miss Ms. Franky Marshall — and not just because of her purple-streaked hair and pink-violet makeup palette. She makes some of the best cocktails in town, experimenting with fresh ingredients, small-batch artisan spirits, and unusual flavor combinations. The vice president of the New York chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild, Ms. Franky has been behind the bar at some of the city's most well-regarded cocktail joints, and her cocktails have won her awards, accolades, and even trips abroad. Ms. Franky talked to Cosmopolitan.com about finding inspiration overseas, her past life as a musician, and her secret fantasy of being spy.

I grew up in New York state, and when I was a kid, I wanted to do all sorts of lofty things. I did French immersions and lived in France for a year in high school. I hate to say it because it's such a cliché, but I went over there and started eating fresh things and going to the store every day and buying bread rather than having a loaf sitting around for a week. And I discovered wine. I was always into food — I used to read restaurant reviews as a kid and go out to eat with my mom — but France gave me a great appreciation for fresh ingredients and opened my eyes a lot. It wasn't about spirits then at all — it was just wine and food.

I studied music in college, vocal music performance specifically. I sang in bands, everything from wedding bands to original music, rock stuff, whatever. Finally I decided I didn't want to be a music teacher, I didn't want to be a French teacher, and even though I loved performing music, it's a difficult life.

I started bartending even before college, while I was also working as a server in restaurants, and kept doing it to pay for college. I wanted to be challenged, and bartenders made more money than servers, and I thought, "I want more money, so let me try that!" I got on-the-job training and lied my way into my first bartending job, because I thought, How hard can it be?

Kathleen Kamphausen

I never went to bartending school. All of my learning has been on the job, and that's why it was really important to start as a server. You have to learn a lot about the business, so for me it was a lot of on-the-job training or education through seminars and course classes.

I do find writing songs and creating cocktails, music and bartending, to be very similar — in a way, everything has already been done. Whether it's the Beatles or the Stones, a lot of people have made great songs, and a lot of people have created these great classic cocktails, so what are you going to add? With songs you have a basic chord structure, like, say, 1–4–5, and you have a melody and you fill in that chord structure. With cocktails you have a basic spirit, sour and then sweet, and you have to decide what each of those things are. You take the paradigms and make them your own.

After college, I worked at all kinds of places, from dive bars to very nice celebrity-filled hotels to neighborhood spots. I started reading about this cocktail renaissance, so I thought I wanted to explore that. I applied for jobs in that realm, and no one would hire me. That was partly because no one knew me and also because at the time there weren't very many women behind bars — cocktail bars were much more male-oriented.

For much of the time I was bartending and still doing music, but the bar and restaurant work always was my source of financial support. But it was hard to do both at once because bartending is not conducive to performing — late nights and yelling over the bar and trying to sing; it really didn't work.

Kathleen Kamphausen

Finally I saw an ad on Craigslist for the Clover Club in Brooklyn. I had heard about [Clover Club owner] Julie Reiner, and I Googled her, and when I applied, I wrote this really detailed cover letter, talking about how I believe in using different types of ice and whatnot. When she interviewed me, I said I will serve or I will bar-back, and she hired me as a cocktail server, even though I had already been bartending for years. I had to kind of step back, but that was good for me. Clover Club was my big entrée into the cocktail world. I realized how much I didn't know, because before that I didn't know what I didn't know.

I was at Clover Club for three and a half years. I was part of the opening staff, and less than a year in, I started bartending there. Things really kicked off from Clover Club. People started noticing me because I worked there. Then I was an apprentice at Tales of the Cocktail, an annual cocktail festival in New Orleans, for three years. I was one of their top mixologists to watch in 2009, of the 10 they select every year. When you get that kind of recognition, people start talking about you, which opens doors. Julie Reiner was the first person to give me that proverbial chance, plus just watching the way she does business — she's a great business person.

From there I went to Monkey Bar, where Julie did the program, so she brought me up there with her. Then I started working this high-volume bar, which will go unnamed. I kept that job for money, not for glory, because with cocktail bartending, that's what you get — people pay attention to you, but the money is not as plentiful and the work is physically much more demanding. I've been here at the Dead Rabbit since we started training in 2012 and opened in early 2013. I was recommended to the Dead Rabbit by a couple of people because I guess they were asking around about female bartenders. We had a few professional dates where we did a lot of talking. I didn't have to go through too much to get the job.

Kathleen Kamphausen

After working at Clover Club for a little bit and getting opportunities, whether it was press or entering a few competitions, I began to realize that there are people who actually want to bring me on a trip to France just for making a drink. That's when I realized I had to take this craft a lot more seriously and I had to learn more and grow if I wanted to be taken seriously. I started entering competitions more often. For example, I was in a Plymouth Gin competition in 2012, where there were six winners and as the one overall winner I got to film a video for Liquor.com. Little things like that accumulate.

I've been lucky. This year alone, I was in Mexico, I went to Peru. I've been to Cognac three times in three years, once from winning a competition, once to compete in another competition, and once to learn about cognac — I'm now a certified cognac expert. I went to Scotland for a competition.

I get very inspired from my travels. It's always really exciting to see not just how other people live but to find inspiration everywhere, whether it's going to a market or seeing a particular color or feeling a texture. Food inspires me a lot. I was just in Paris a few weeks ago, and I had a couple of really great meals and this particular chef had some really interesting flavor combinations that I thought of paying tribute to, i.e., stealing, in my cocktails.

To get these travel opportunities, sometimes people come to you. The Scotland thing, for example, started out as a whiskey event where a brand invited a group of bartenders and then announced there was a competition. Other opportunities are sent out via industry-specific newsletters where brands advertise competitions. I'm also the vice president of the New York chapter of the United States Bartending Guild, so through the USBG there are competitions open to members.

I've been a member of USBG since 2008, and I got my membership because I did a bartender education program called BarSmarts, and once you do BarSmarts you get a free membership. In 2012, I decided I wanted to run for a USBG position because I wanted to make a difference. I knew certain people I worked with over the years were like, "What benefits would I get out of this?" I wanted to stress education a bit more. When I won, I started planning more seminars and started a "talk with a pro" series where we bring in industry experts to answer questions. I always used to wonder, "How do these people get to where they are? What was their trajectory?" So I started those interviews.

Kathleen Kamphausen

I haven't done music in a long time. I sang at the awards at the Tales of the Cocktail festival in 2011 with a big band, which was a lot of fun. But it's a constant nagging feeling. It's something I definitely want to get back to, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about that without losing momentum with what I'm doing. You really have to push, push, push. It's all about who you know. It's similar to bartending that way. I had a good go when I first started, but after a while, lining up for an open call standing outside the Apollo Theater with 100 other people can be a really horrible thing. Sometimes you're auditioning for these really small roles, and it's like, "Who the hell are you? I don't even know if this show is going to be any good and you're judging me?"

I generally don't wake up before noon. I get up and I have a bunch of USBG-related emails, a lot of organizational stuff. For example, we just had an amari [Italian herbal liqueur] event, which went really well, but that kind of thing takes a lot of planning. So that's what I do a lot of — for instance, we went to Mexico in January with the USBG, and I planned it. Then there's the me promotion, whether that's something like this or updating Facebook. Then I start here [at the Dead Rabbit]. When I'm opening, that's about 4 p.m., and usually eating while I set up. Shifts are long. I'll be here until at least midnight. When I close, it's 4:45 p.m. until 3:30 in the morning. Right now I'm behind the bar two to three days a week. I used to work more, but it's just physically exhausting. That said, even though I'm here part-time, this job is still full-time mentally. We were just working on new drinks for the insert menu — we have the standard menu and then an insert with seasonal cocktails. And we have trainings and whatnot, so this place never really stops.

I learned by observing and asking a lot of questions to everybody and anybody. Reading books helps. And whenever there's a seminar or workshop, I try to get involved in that. I did a stage in 2011 at a bar in London, at The Bar With No Name, and even though it was very short — I was in London for probably 10 days — it really opened my eyes to a different way of thinking about bartending.

Kathleen Kamphausen

I don't enter every competition, and I don't try to take every job that's offered to me. You get a lot of offers to consult for companies or create cocktails for brands, and I try to choose those jobs carefully so that I don't have to be ashamed or worried. You should really think twice about your affiliations, because at the end of the day you're representing yourself.

You can't just show up and make drinks anymore. You're also branding yourself — even just working the bar, you have to create cocktails, you have to be creative with recipes, you are an accountant because you're charging money, you have to take care of social media things, you have to keep constantly learning because everything is changing. You've got to constantly try to stay relevant and stay on people's minds.

People are constantly asking me those — what's your Twitter handle? Can I find you on Facebook? — and I realize people just expect it now. But it's the same thing with music — you have to keep showing, Here's me, look at me! I feel that I need to do it and so I do it, but I do it as much as my personal integrity can take. With music it was easier for me to say, "This is me singing and this is my act and look at it." But with this it's almost more personal, because it's just about me — it can be about the drinks, but it's really just like, Hey, this is me.

Sometimes I think I should have started in the craft cocktail world a little earlier, but pre-2008 it wasn't really established anyway. There were some bars that were open, but I think I got in at the right time. Sometimes I wish I had worked in Europe a bit more. But I'm really glad for all the experience I have, and I really have worked in every environment. There are a lot of people who go right into craft cocktailing and they haven't worked in a regular bar where you have to deal with … well, it's a different clientele.

Bartending is also physically difficult. I've worked in places where it was just me and I was my own bar-back, so changing kegs, bringing up cases of liquor from basements, going outside where it's freezing cold to access the basement, being there at 6 a.m. counting out money and closing the place up. The cold draft ice cocktail bars use is heavier to shake with than the old ice from the crappy bars. My feet are definitely sore at the end of a couple nights. I don't want to talk to anybody, I don't want to go walking in my neighborhood, and for a couple days, I don't want to be on my feet for too long.

Kathleen Kamphausen

Working in this industry has not given me any faith in relationships, because I've seen a lot deteriorate before my eyes. It's interesting observing people, whether they're on dates or in serious relationships, and watching them interact. There are a lot of unhappy people in New York. There are a lot of people with issues, and a lot of it comes out when they're sitting across from you and they've had some alcohol. There are some key times you notice it — Christmastime they drink more and start dreading going to visit their families. It's kind of sad. And observing male rituals, guys come in and wait for the top guy to order and "I'll have whatever he's having." All these things you notice.

I always wanted to be a spy, but without the killing — or without getting killed, anyway. I used to have big fantasies about that. You get to travel a lot. I watch those old movies about people getting this high-level intelligence. Especially after bartending for so many years, I talk to so many different people, I know that I've met some killers or people with unsavory pasts. Rubbing shoulders with people like that would be interesting, but again, without being killed. I don't want to be dead.

Kathleen Kamphausen

I am not afraid to change. And I'm open to new experiences, so I am always thinking about what's next. These days, you can bartend for a long time, and I could go get a union job in a hotel and just stir really slowly if I felt like it, but I don't think I want to be doing that for the rest of my life. I'm interested in education around spirits and cocktails, and there are also brand jobs. But I want to choose wisely and not just jump into anything.

I have musician friends who have really struggled, and it's always a struggle, but bartending has always been pretty financially rewarding. That's why a lot of people get into it initially, not into the craft cocktail world, but bartending and serving, just for the money. If I weren't bartending, I would definitely have a hard time financially. That's what kept me eating foie gras every day [laughs].

Get That Life is a weekly series that reveals how successful, talented, creative women got to where they are now. Check back each Monday for the latest interview.

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